Cave Canem
by One Raindrop Raises the Sea
Summary: Transfer students Katara and Sokka find themselves deep in a mystery that shrouds their new unorthodox boarding school, needing help from friends both new and old to unlock the past. Not your typical high school story.
1. Adventus

Katara POV- **Adventus**

Katara groaned in pain as the wheel of her brother's suitcase hit her heel for the umpteenth time in their short journey from the gates of the school to the main office. Their transfer papers were nestled away safely in the younger sister's messenger bag— Sokka having the disposition to "misplace" such things. Although, in this case she really wouldn't mind these documents to be shredded, burned, and shipped to the four corners of the world; these damn documents that have sealed their fate to be students at a place so pretentious, supercilious, and haughty—along with every word to describe an American private school that had smug Ralph Lauren clad polo player on the front of its finely embroidered broacher.

"Ouch," she screeched when once again the object smashed against her, "Sokka, honestly!"

"Jesus, it's not my fault!" he held his hand up in protest, "I think my bag is broken or something."

To emphasis this he jiggled the handle, succeeding to prove absolutely nothing and causing Katara's frustration to greaten. Exasperated, she quickened her pace, ignoring as her brother as he murmured something about PMS.

Even in her irritated state, Katara had to admit the campus was stunning. Giant flowering trees lined the pathways, shedding small white pedals that reminded her of thawing snow—if only it was cold enough for that. In this hot climate it almost seemed too hot for liquid water, and it definitely felt as if all the saliva in her mouth had evaporated and is currently contributing to the dense humidity that clung to her skin.

"Maybe Americans aren't crazy, maybe they are just hot." she pondered bitterly out loud.

"Or maybe that's why they are crazy." Sokka yelled back from behind her, "Perpetual heat stroke is definitely a possibility."

She couldn't help but giggle, forgetting her sour mood momentarily and allowing her older brother to catch back up with her.

He nudged her elbow and motioned with his head to the left where close to the top of one of the great trees was a rustle of leaves. A rustle that kept ascending and ascending until it made to the top where it could be recognized as a head: a closely shaved head of a young boy, who couldn't be older than Katara. The climbing boy closed his eyes as a slight breeze passed through; the small amount of black hairs he had moved slightly in the wind. He looked so serene— completely unfazed by the height he was at or the ground that was far below. By just looking at him she felt as calm as he looked, yearning to detach herself from the world like that.

Sokka nudged her once again, and she forced herself to look away from the soothing scene and return back to reality.

"What institute do you think that one escaped from?" he sniggered, "An asylum or a zoo?"

"Mhmm" she responded noncommittally and gave in to her urges to look back at the boy. However, a pair of large, chocolate brown eyes stared down at her and for a millisecond the two locked eyes, the distance from each other seemed like it shrunk and the damp, humid air felt denser making it almost impossible to breathe. As soon as it began, it ended. The boy quickly turned a bright shade of red, gave a sheepish grin, and hide himself in the thick canopy of flowers.

"Strange boy." Katara murmured, her gaze still lingering at the trees.

Sokka eyed his sister dubiously. "Yeah, and he's not only one…"

They had made it to their destination, the campus' main office, before she had time to respond— luckily as well since the only retort in her repertoire was a juvenile 'no you're the strange one'. The building was immense in a clear attempt to display the wealth of their benefactors. Large white columns stood at the top of a set of large stone stairs with silver polished railings. The building greyed vertically, transforming gradually into a black roof with large, scowling gargoyle effigies on each corner. What could have been an architects' worst nightmare was a surprisingly handsome and grand building, somehow contradicting very pleasantly.

A woman and a man were standing at the foot of the bleached stairs; both of their hands folded in front of their crisp black suits. Katara thought they looked more like flight assistants than school officials with their matching outfits and white pearly smiles.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully, extended a manicured hand that Katara shook with much less enthusiasm than was given.

"Hello," Katara returned the greeting with some hesitance, "I'm Katara and this is my brother—"

"Sokka!" the woman by some defiance of all physical laws and Holy Scriptures, beamed brighter and wider at the two. "Yes, we have been expecting you. Welcome to Malconium Academy!" As if she was lazily trying to be the 'Y' in 'YMCA', she widened her arms to formally present the campus to its new students.

"It's… ah… beautiful campus." Sokka said, coughing several times to disguise his snickers. "Excuse me; Allergies. I'm, um, allergic to the sun." Katara rolled her eyes. It wasn't allergies that were plaguing her brother but foot-in-mouth syndrome: unfortunately chronic, incurable, and terribly irritating those around.

"Thank you," the woman said, ignoring the majority of what he said. "We are ranked number one in floras and faunas."

"However, our new foreign exchange students have probably seen better, _**eh**_?" the man said, shoving Sokka's shoulder playfully; yet, the teenager still rubbed it and grimaced— obviously dramatics Katara thought. She had seen infants hit harder.

"Ha ha ha ha." The woman laughed at her colleague's joke exactly four times, at a steady tempo and tone.

The two siblings stared at woman with wide eyes and dropped jaws; before Sokka erupted into a laughing and coughing fit.

"Sssorry—" he gasped for air in between words, laughs, and coughs; resembling a gulping goldfish in the process. "My— allergies— are acting up."

The woman placed a hand over her chest and gasped, "Oh dear, we better get you inside. If you would follow Mr. Adamson to the male dormitory; Katara, I can take you to the female—"

"But, what about registration? Tuition payment plans? Release of liability and disciplinary action agreements? Honor codes?" Sokka interrupted and voiced in one breath—impressive since he bent over gasping and clutching his stomach only a quick minute ago.

"Those things?! Such vulgarities!" the woman assumed the same position she had when fearing for Sokka's life: a hand of her heart and an agape mouth. She continued, "Later, later. We have time. Come,come."

Motioning for their students, she and the man turned backs and begun walking in opposite directions, forcing the siblings to give hurried goodbyes and shared dubious expressions, before chasing after their tour guides.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **As stated in the summary, this is not a typical high school story. Things will change. It is a bit difficult to explain without giving away too much, but I hope I can convince you to give it a bit more if school stories aren't your cup of tea. However, there is some of that stuff coming up if you are a fan. _

_Also, most chapters will be fairly short such as this one. Although normally I try to write more, this low word count format works best for this particular story. I will try to update more often to compensate the reader. _

_As always, thanks for reading and if you enjoyed please feel free to review and watch; or even if you didn't enjoy, please review with comments, concerns, or complaints. If I have made any grammatical or spelling mistake please mention it; I am a terrible human who doesn't know how to speak or write properly._

_Lusa_


	2. Fraternus

Sokka POV- **Fraternus**

"Alrighty! Here we are, sport!" the man grinned and punched Sokka lightly on the shoulder. While Sokka was normally game for good ole fashion heterosexual male bonding, the amount of times today he had been 'playfully' punched, shoved, shaken, patted, and called _sport _is teetering off the edge of _too many damn times_ into the territory of _**way**__ too many damn times_.

But, before Sokka had the opportunity to respond with words that undoubtedly were slathered in sarcasm and contempt, the man spoke again.

"This is your room" he said, motioning to a large wooden door with a golden plate in the center that read '419'.

He continued, "Your roommate is named Lee."

"Lee?" Sokka interrupted. A very feminine name for a boy, he thought.

"Yep, L-E-E. Lee." the man said, not at all being facetious, but as if he truly believed spelling was the ultimate answer sure to dispel any confusion.

"Alrighty, sport—" Sokka winced, but the man resumed obliviously, "Off to work I go, I guess. Come find me if you need anything; I'll be around." He waved and left, but unfortunately for Sokka not without giving him a final, and quite audible, pat on the upper arm.

However, too involved in his own thoughts, Sokka didn't bother to give any farewell to the retreating man. A name was busily echoing in his mind and an image was starting to form.

_Lee._

_ Tall. _

_Alabaster skin._

_Brown eyes—so light they resembled honey._

_Thick, curly brown hair that cascaded off shoulders and accentuated a miraculous chest. _

_A slight southern accent would shyly sound from plump rosy lips, 'Y'all must be my new roommate. I hope we become friends… or maybe… closer?' _

With hormones raging, Sokka hastily grabbed the handle, which screeched loudly from the manhandling, and pushed the door open with the force of a thousand single and lonely male teenagers, only to be inevitably disappointed by what was behind door 419, or more specifically who. His southern belle, very sexy and very imaginary, female roommate was actually very much male. In fact he was a boy with tousled brown hair lying on one of the beds with a book in his hand. He was also scowling, but otherwise gave no recognition to Sokka's entrance.

Swallowing his disappointment, Sokka extended a hand, "Hey, I'm Sokka, your new roommate. You must be Lee."

Without looking up the boy said, "No."

"No…?" Sokka repeated, feeling awfully like a parrot today. He always had been clever; always quick with his retort, which— in his mind at least— was always brimming with wit and humor. He normally understood how things operated, along with having the solution to problems that could arise. And if he didn't know, a quick explanation would suffice; he grasped theories quickly and built off them even quicker.

But, honestly, he was quite simply stumped. So in an attempt to regain his composure, he fiddled around with his words awkwardly.

"No, I am not your roommate? No, you are not Lee? No… Am I not Sokka? Because I really thought I was Sokka. Didn't think I was going to have an identity crisis today, but it's cool I guess."

Unsurprisingly, the sullen boy didn't respond. Sokka could have mistaken him for a deaf or a mute if he hadn't answered him previously. Instead, he was fixated his book— which he obviously wasn't even reading as he hadn't turned a page once in the time it took Sokka to have a very awkward entrance, an equally awkward one-sided conversation, and a silent— and did he mention awkward—unpacking. His roommate was either the slowest reader on the face of the Earth or wasn't all that into socialization.

Not that that deterred Sokka.

"So, _No_, what do people do here for fun? I mean it can't be bridge and caviar all the time, right? Hey, it's not that I don't like fish ovaries and eggs— which according to some is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids— but I was thinking of a kind of fun that wasn't geriatric."

* * *

Outside the sun was about to set, creating a soft glow as the natural light bounced off the white walls of the dormitory. The lights were off when Sokka arrived and he hadn't bothered to turn it on in the time he had been in the room. He looked out through the window; being on the fourth floor the large white trees were beneath them, looking more like clouds than foliage, and giving the impression they were much higher than they were.

Sokka whistled, "It's beautiful, isn't it No?"

"I hate it here." He responded tersely.

Positioning himself in front of the window, Sokka raised his arms slightly at both sides and spoke in a high pitch voice, "Welcome to Malconium Academy."

What he thought was a pretty good impression of the freakishly chipper woman must have fell flat on his new roommate, who once again refused to acknowledge Sokka's unrivaled sense of humor. Sighing, Sokka flopped down on the opposing bed.

"But seriously, brah, this is boarding school. You're not supposed to like it." He said, perching his head on top of the pillows.

Not tired enough to sleep, he looked aimlessly around the room. It had all the basics without much frill: the room was nearly symmetric: two beds, two desks— each with a lamp—, two bookcases, and two closets on either side. His roommate hadn't bothered to decorate much, not so much as one shirtless woman graced the white walls. Or, to be fair, a shirtless man— if that was he was into. Sokka had no clue who his roommate was; hell, he wasn't even sure what his name was.

The bareness of the walls, however, did make the dark wooden door more prominent. Sokka stared at it for several minutes making patterns out of the growth rings like he did when he was younger. At a certain angle it appeared to have glaring eyes that made his stomach shift. Feeling a bit silly for his juvenile response, he closed his eyes to replace that image with one much more preferred: the beautiful if-only roommate.

"Hey," Sokka shouted to his roommate, "Say Y'all."

"No."

_Damn._


End file.
